Ron Jaworski, an announcer on ESPN’s Monday Night Football, implored the Rams this week to call Vermeil and ask him to return.

St. Louis is 0-2 and been outscored 82-16. Head coach Scott Linehan has drawn heavy criticism in the St. Louis media.

Vermeil said Rams general manager Jay Zygmunt “helped us do what we did and was a major factor in our success. They also have a fine coaching staff.”

Vermeil said his time in pro football has passed. He coached the Rams from 1997-99 and the Chiefs from 2001-05.

The passion still burns, he said, but he has a wine business — Dick Vermeil Cabernet — that he’s restructuring.

“I’ll be 72 this coming month,” he said. “I have the energy to coach and to work in pro football, but I don’t have the stamina any more.

“It’s such a demanding, demanding pace and it goes for so long. I wouldn’t want to shortchange the ownership by not being able to do it by the standards that I set for myself and the standards required to be successful.”